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April 12, 2017

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Life With Littles | Embracing Slow and Messy [Cleaning]

Each Spring, I think we all have the urge to declutter and clean the entire house top to bottom. There’s just something about the birds chirping outside, the windows open, and the smell of freshly cut grass wafting through those windows that makes you want to clean. Maybe it’s the fact that the windows ARE open and you’ve gotten close enough to see just how dirty the windows became over the winter. Or maybe it’s the desire to just start fresh and release your inner clean freak. This time of year is a fantastic opportunity to teach the kids about decluttering, really cleaning the house, and getting to those often-neglected (at least in our household) areas, like the bottom half of the kitchen! We partnered with Lemi Shine to show how we’re embracing our life with littles and teaching them how to clean. If you haven’t checked out Lemi Shine, I highly recommend you do! They’re super powerful and safe, and we love the scent of the 100% citrus extracts! They have products for every room of the house, including areas we forget to clean like the inside of the dishwasher and washing machine! (And pssst, they have some coupons for your next trip to the grocery store!)

It’s not always easy teaching and training kids how to clean; in fact, most of the time it’s easier to just wait until they’re napping and get the housework done then. But, we’ve found that the girls simply LOVE helping…whether that’s scrubbing the floor, washing dishes, “folding” laundry, or sweeping. They generally love being with us all day long and helping with whatever we’re up do. At this stage, allowing them to help takes at least twice as long. Naomi loves to “fold” the laundry, but really, it just gets balled up and thrown into my clean piles. Or she accidentally knocks all the folded laundry onto the floor. Or, they sweep the floor by spreading the mess even further. Or when they help scrub the floor, we end up with a flood of water and drenched clothes. But honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. And I’m thankful we found cleaning products they’re able to use! They need to be taught at some point, and I’d rather it be now then when they’re unwilling teenagers. And hopefully, by starting with them as toddlers, they’ll have cleaning properly engrained into their systems and we’ll create little cleaning robots. haha…

We tackled the kitchen this weekend. We played our favorite soundtrack and used some of our favorite Lemi Shine products. What I love most about this brand is the clear, short list of ingredients; they’re safe for kids to use and extremely effective. Zoe and Naomi loved using the Everyday Spray Cleaner on the outside of our dishwasher, refrigerator, and oven. They actually fought over who would spray next (I hope they always fight over who will clean)… And Naomi stood on a chair at the window for at least 15 minutes and sprayed the Glass & Surface Cleaner, then carefully wiped it off.

We had the most fun when all of us were working together on scrubbing our kitchen floor. It’s time for me to be honest (Nana, I really hope you’re not reading this post): I have not once personally cleaned my entire kitchen floor in the 3+ years we’ve lived here. Joe’s cleaned it (and so has my mom), and I spot clean here and there when we’ve had messes, but I’ve never once gotten on my hands and knees to clean it. That changed this past weekend when I decided it was high time the girls learn what good old fashioned floor scrubbing looks like. Yes, Naomi ended up drenching herself and the floor, but Joe patiently used her mess-making as an opportunity to teach her how to properly squeeze the cloth dry before removing it from the bucket. Zoe simply scooted and sang her way across the kitchen floor, cheerfully getting to every nook and cranny.

I’m trying to cherish these slow and messy cleaning days, knowing they’ll soon be gone. It’s actually fun involving the girls in our cleaning endeavors, and the best reward is a clean house afterwards 🙂 How are you tackling your Spring cleaning? Have you learned any tips or tricks for involving children in household cleaning? I’d love to hear!

Thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law, Abigail Gallop, for capturing our family at work cleaning the kitchen this past weekend.

Sponsor note: Although this post was sponsored by Lemi Shine, all content, words, and ideas are my own. Thanks for supporting the partnerships that help keep this blog running!

[…] After breakfast, the girls and I head upstairs to get dressed and get ready for the day. We’re starting to neaten their room and make their beds every morning, with lots of help from me. They’re young, and yes, it’d be easier if I just did it while they played downstairs, but I want to try to instill this habit in them while they’re young! I wrote more about teaching kids how to clean here. […]

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